Written by

Ted Shockley

Staff Writer

ONANCOCK — The Republican candidate for state lieutenant governor on Tuesday said electing Democrats to statewide office would be akin to giving President Barack Obama “the keys to Virginia.”

E.W. Jackson, a minister, teacher and lawyer who graduated from Harvard Law School, told a group at an Accomack County Republican dinner that he, gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli and Mark Obenshain, candidate for attorney general, would keep the state free of the president’s initiatives.

Speaking just down the street from the high school his opponent, state Sen. Ralph Northam, attended, Jackson lumped Northam with fellow Democrats Terry McAuliffe, candidate for governor, and Mark Herring, the party’s attorney general candidate.

“Turning this commonwealth over to the likes to Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam and Mark Herring, it is a fate too horrible to contemplate,” he said.

“It is really a clash between two very different, competing visions,” he said.

Later, when asked how he would win the Eastern Shore with a native son as an opponent, Jackson hoped he would perform well here and in other areas of the state.

“The most important thing is that, when all is said and done, I have at least one more (vote) than he has,” he said.

During a brief talk Jackson criticized Northam, saying his opponent has “a vision of more government, more dependence, more collectivism, more unionism, far less entrepreneurship, far less economic growth.”

He also criticized the national Affordable Care Act, saying “Obamacare is destroying the Virginia economy.”

“We have got to put a stop to it, or it is going to fundamentally change this country into something the founders never intended,” he said.

Jackson also spoke of limiting federal powers on states and defending religious liberty. He supported the option of having parents choose where their children can be educated.

He cited the hundreds of state schools that do not have full state accreditation and criticized “liberals” and teachers’ unions for working against parental choice.

Jackson also addressed the need of children having a mother and father active in their lives, saying his father’s influence helped him turn course from a child who failed fifth grade to a child with perfect grades in sixth grade.

Jackson has been criticized by opponents and even the Washington Post’s editorial board as being “too extreme” with his past statements on religion, homosexuals and Planned Parenthood. Jackson did not discuss such topics in Onancock.

Jackson and supporters were buoyed by a Newsmax/Zogby poll that had him trailing Northam, 36 percent to 32 percent, with 24 percent undecided. It is a gain, they said.

The election is Nov. 5.

“It is always good to have confirmation what you sense in your gut,” said Jackson afterward. “I think I’ve got a message that will resonate with anybody who is willing to give me a hearing.”